


acceptance

by yourlocalheartbreaker



Series: sumayyah writes drabbles! [3]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst With A Bittersweet Ending, Comfort, F/M, Hotch Whump, Hurt Aaron Hotchner, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Teenage!Haley, Teenage!Hotch, The Way I'm Trying To Make That A Tag, physical fights
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 21:29:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29178000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourlocalheartbreaker/pseuds/yourlocalheartbreaker
Summary: for the prompt: teen hotch saving haley when some guys jump her. he ends up getting hurt by fighting them off so they have to go to haley's house and haley told her parents how he saved her which makes her parents change their minds about him.
Relationships: Aaron Hotchner/Haley Hotchner
Series: sumayyah writes drabbles! [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2142066
Kudos: 17





	acceptance

**Author's Note:**

> tw: child abuse, violence

Hotch had never been to Haley’s house before. If they met up, it was either in school or the park. Never their homes. Because her parents didn’t approve. Because he didn’t want Haley to be taken in by his father’s act and hate him. No matter how many times she said she wouldn’t because she believed him.

Hotch thought she was lying. Haley knew he thought this, but wasn’t about to comment. She’d say it as many times as she needed to, she’d get it tattooed on her stomach if it would convince him.

So no, he’d never been to her house.

But then the football team decided they were going to try and attack her for dating him.

It was by complete chance that he’d stayed behind to do some more prep for the upcoming mock trial and happened to be walking past when they did.

He shoved the first one off of her, saying that if they wanted to punish someone for her poor mistakes, then they should punish him. Haley was too shocked that the people she had called her friends would even try and hurt her to vocalise her horror at his words.

They did.

They pushed him against the wall, kicked him to the ground and punched him, pulled his hair, kicked him in the stomach. But Hotch had learnt to be silent in the face of pain. it was why when he let out a shout that Haley stopped shaking. She tried to push the ringleader away.

Hotch wasn’t responding to anyone, his words slurred. They ran away when they realised if someone found them, their scholarships would go down the drain.

“Can you stand?” Haley asked, already helping him up.

He said something she couldn’t make out, already shifting away to try and support his own weight. She sighed and tightened her grip, not about to let him go.

Her house was only five minutes from the school, but it took them fifteen. She let herself in, glad beyond belief that both her parents were at work and Jessica was on a date. she immediately took Aaron up to her room, sitting him on the bed before grabbing the first aid kit from the bathroom.

“Where am i?” he asked, looking around. she winced at the sight of his swollen eye.

“My bedroom,” she answered simply, getting some plasters out.

“I can’t be here. I can’t. I need- need to leave and- and go back to my- your parents,” he whimpered.

“You don’t need to go anywhere sweetness,” she said, attempting to soothe him enough to wipe the blood off his face. she didn’t even want to think about taking his shirt off.

The front door slammed. Aaron flinched. she froze, praying it was Jessica. She wouldn’t say anything.

“Haley? Where are you? Apparently that boy you’ve decided to start hanging out with was causing trouble. Again. How many times are we going to do this same song and dance-” her father shouted, stopping in the doorway.

He looked at Aaron. “You. What are you doing in my house?”

Aaron buried his head in his hands. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.”

“You should be. How dare you corrupt my daughter, then come into her bedroom looking like that. No wonder your parents are ashamed of you, you absolute good for nothing piece of-”

“Dad! He was saving me!”

“What do you mean, he was saying you?” her dad asked, turning from Aaron to her.

Haley swallowed. “The football team. They-”

“Did they hurt you?”

She shook her head. “No, but they tried. And they would’ve succeeded if Aaron hadn’t saved me. It wasn’t his fault, I swear. He was just trying to protect me. That’s the only reason he ever gets into fights.”

Roy turned to the boy on his daughter’s bed. He hadn’t raised a liar. If Haley said the football team started it by trying to hurt her, then it must’ve been them. He crept closer, placed his hand on Aaron’s shoulder, almost flinching when he realised just how thin he was.

Aaron jerked away, bringing his knees up to his chest to make himself appear smaller. “Papa please don’t hurt them, they didn’t do anything wrong.”

Roy recoiled like it was him that had been beaten. “Aaron?”

Aaron looked up, tears in his eyes. “Mr brooks? I- I’m so sorry, I know I shouldn’t be here, I’ll leave right now, just please don’t tell my dad I was here, I won’t ev- ever come back if you don’t want me to just, please.”

Roy hugged him. He’d had a suspicion everything was not what it seemed within the Hotchner household, everyone had, but there was never anything they could do. But seeing this little boy, because that was what he was, a boy just fall apart broke something inside him.

“You don’t need to leave Aaron. Not tonight. You saved my daughter. I misjudged you. We all did. So clean up and eat some dinner, okay?”

Aaron nodded, too stunned to say or do anything else.

Haley kissed her father on the cheek. “Thank you dad.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “I should’ve trusted you. He is a good kid.”

She shook her head. “The main thing is you do now.”

Aaron stayed for dinner that night. And the next. And the next. He stayed at their house as much as possible. And on the days where going home was inevitable, Haley would be waiting in the sitting room for him to come back with her father, who just so happened to need him for something related to the house.

It wasn’t perfect, far from it.

But it was acceptance from the one person he wanted it from.


End file.
